Union leaders joust with Budget over DEC promotions

PEF’s Ken Brynien and CSEA’s Danny Donohue were joined this morning by Budget Division spokesman Erik Kriss on Susan Arbetter’s “Capitol Pressroom” radio show to discuss yesterday’s back-and-forth over what the union’s claimed was new hiring by the DEC; Budget responded by noting that the new positions were promotions to fill vacancies left behind by those who took the early retirement incentive.

“I’d like to point out that we filled (the formerly vacant positions) with a number of union members,” Kriss said. “So I think that a lot of union members would probably appreciate the notion that if they work hard (they) can be promoted to higher positions.”

Kriss noted that for everybody who was promoted at DEC, a position was eliminated — 260 employees took the incentive, saving $10 million this year and $25 million next year.

Donohue said he would bet that those leaving the payroll made less than those on the promotion list, and in any case the promotions of top managers should be left up to the new governor. “These are management positions, positions that are at the discretion of the governor. That would save the state a lot more money, if the governor chooses not to fill them,” he said.

“You need managers to run an agency,” Kriss said. “If you ask anybody out there who runs a business or even a household: You can’t let the kids run the household, you can’t let the lower-level employees run a business. You need managers. And because DEC was aggressive in promoting early retirement, a lot of top managers took that. You can’t leave the agency without management to run and guide the agency.”

“We’re not just cutting at the lower levels, we’re cutting at all levels,” Kriss said.

Brynien said that Gov. David Paterson had led him to believe in mid-2009 that the creation of a Tier V pension package would be sufficient to achieve necessary savings, and that the governor had then moved too quickly to pursue layoffs while ignoring union suggestions to find cost-savings. Kriss noted that the fiscal picture had darkened considerably in the 18 months since those discussions, and that the administration had shown a willingness to heed some of the unions’ suggestions — even though the unions had roadblocked workforce savings alternatives such as a pay lag or furlough.

Brynien said Andrew Cuomo was currently hearing from agencies and advisers about the size and status of the state workforce. “I’m waiting for the time when the people who actually do the work can actually give him the other side of some of these stories so then he can make some balanced decisions,” he said.

“Any governor that comes in has to have a working relationship with both CSEA and PEF,” Donohue said, “and if they don’t then they’re going to have problems out there. We represent the workforce, and more importantly the governor of New York is supposed to be the governor of the entire state, not everybody but public workers.”